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And after I had struck flint and steel vainly, perhaps a dozen

ti the tinder,

held it for hted my tobacco

"Thank you!" said I, as she returned the box, and then I saw that

she was san

"But we are not"

"Then suppose you begin?"

"Do you really wish to hear about that--humble person?"

"Very much!"

"Then you must know, in the first place, that she is old, sir,

dreadfully old!"

"But," said I, "she really cannot be more than twenty-three--or

four at the most"

"She is just twenty-one!" returned Charht

"Quite a child!"

"No, indeed--it is experience that ages one--and by experience

she is quite--two hundred!"

"The wonder is that she still lives"

"Indeed it is!" "And, being of such a ripe age, it is probable

that she, at any rate, has--been in love"

"Scores of ti very hard at my pipe "Or fancied so," said Char!"

"Do you think so?"